


Home is Wherever I'm With You

by nevernevergirl



Series: head full of doubt, road full of promise [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-17 09:15:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1382044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevernevergirl/pseuds/nevernevergirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a fire destroyed their Boston apartment, Emma and Henry choose where they'll make their new home. Missing year  fic, directly post-Going Home, (slight) mentions of past Emma/Neal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home is Wherever I'm With You

Emma's been through worse. 

She's run away from a foster system hellbent on breaking her, she's lived on the street, she's lived in her car. She's been in jail, she's had a _baby_  in jail, she worked her ass off after getting out of jail to prove to social services she could take care of her baby.

Emma Swan's been through a lot worse than an apartment fire, but she's spent the past 11 years making sure her son  _hasn't,_ and that's what claws at her insides.

Henry seems like he's handling it okay. She thinks it scares him more than anything that they could have been home during the fire; they'd gone to a movie on a whim that night. She can't remember suggesting it, can't remember why she'd wanted to take him out on a school night, but she's glad she did. The memory of the charred structured they'd come home to is more than enough.

They'd gotten in the car that night and driven to a hotel just outside of Boston. He'd climbed into bed beside her like he'd been too old to do for years and said, calmly: "So where do we want to go now?"

They'd moved around a bit, through Henry's childhood. Not as often as she'd been moved from home to home as a kid, but probably more than was normal. It was their normal, though-- she'd never figured out how to plant roots, and Henry liked new places, new experiences, new friends. Maybe restlessness was a genetic trait, or maybe she'd just taught it to him, but either way, she's thankful now he's so adaptable.

(The pinky swear he'd get a replacement XBox once they found a new place probably hadn't hurt, either.)

They'd decided then on a road trip. She knows they used to go on them all the time when he was younger, that she used to use them to make their moves seem like an adventure, but she couldn't even remember the last time they'd taken a trip like this. They'd spent the past week driving through New England-- stopping at tourist traps and rock-paper-scissoring for control of the radio and combing through small towns for decent bed & breakfasts. 

He'd talked her into camping out in the middle of nowhere Maine the night before-- she loves her son more than anything, but she'd given him a stern look as they'd settled back in the bug.

"No more camping," she said, firmly. "Real mattresses and running water for the rest of the trip. Mom veto."

"Where's your sense of adventure, Mom?" he'd teased. 

"It ran off with the squirrel that tried to climb in my sleeping bag," she grumbled. 

"Yeah, that was the best part," he'd grinned.

"That's it, you're grounded," she'd muttered, smiling a little anyway. 

"You can't ground me on a road trip, that doesn't even make sense. We're on the  _road_."

"Remind me to ground you later," she shrugged.

"Sure, mom," he rolled his eyes, smiling.

They'd been on their trip almost a week now, and cool mom or not, it was probably time to go home. Find a home. Whatever.

They stopped at a convenience store just before leaving Maine. She gave Henry the go ahead to load up on snacks while she picked through the maps. 

"Here we go," she mumbled to herself as she grabbed one, apprehension settling like a heavy ball in the pit of her stomach; she wasn't sure why.

She spread the map out across her lap once they were back in the car, Henry sorting through his haul beside her. The familiarity of it hit her with one sharp pang-- another, older boy in the passenger seat with Henry's smile and Henry's eyes, sorting through a less legally obtained stash of junk food, promising her home.

_Nope_.

She pushed Neal and his broken promises aside like she'd been doing for 11 years. They weren't real.  _This_  was real. Her future was real, hers and Henry's.

"Come here, kid," she said, gesturing toward the map. "Close your eyes and point. Whatever spot you pick, that's our home."

Henry grinned, squeezing his eyes shut tightly, circling his finger over the map before landing. He opened his eyes, grinning. 

"New York," he said, triumphantly. "We're moving to New York!"

Emma wrinkled her nose. "You couldn't have picked somewhere with cheaper rent?" 

" _You_  told me to close my eyes," he said, shrugging. "Besides. Good pizza."

Emma thought, nodding a little. "Great pizza," she conceded. "And bagels. The bagels are  _really_  good."

Henry grinned. "So that's a yes, right? We're moving to New York?"

Emma grinned back, ruffling his hair, laughing as he protested with a whiny  _moooooom stop_. "Yeah, kid. We're moving to New York."


End file.
